Introduction

This chapter situates relations between the United States and West Africa within the historical context in which overall responsibility for African affairs in the organizational structure of the Department of State (DOS) began to evolve separately from responsibility for European affairs. It then explores the nexus between ideology and the institutionalization of U.S. foreign relations with Africa in the critical interwar and Cold War decades. The restructuring process began in 1937 and culminated in the establishment of a separate Division of African Affairs within the DOS in 1958.

Prior to World War II, U.S. relations with Africa were shaped by a dual strategy: tacit recognition of Europe's colonial interests and pursuit of economic, cultural, and strategic interests in key areas of the continent. When Africa mattered, it was often in response to crisis situations involving rival European claims to African territories, or when Nazism and Fascism aligned themselves with the colonial lobby, in Germany and Italy respectively, to challenge key provisions of the post–World War I peace settlement. In the Cold War years, the United States often overreacted to the threat posed by Soviet Communism in Africa by supporting repressive/racist regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia and corrupt strongmen like Joseph Mobutu in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC) because of their anti-Communist rhetoric.

Historical Context of U.S. Relations with Africa

Although 12 percent of the U.S. population (about 30 million people) claim descent from Africa as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, overall, foreign policy and national security planners in Washington have treated Africa as a marginal area of the world.